The Dink Network

GNU FreeDink

November 2nd, 2014
1.08.20090918
Score : 9.5 exceptional
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FreeDink is the best way to play Dink in 2014. The last official regular version of Dink, v1.08, was released all the way back in 2006, and has trouble working on newer versions of Windows, belching, stuttering and blowing smoke like the old engine that it is. Seth Robinson, the creator of Dink himself, made Dink Smallwood HD in 2011, which ported the game to 'smart'phones. Unfortunately, that's the only thing DinkHD is good for, as it has serious problems running dmods, and generally doesn't feel as stable or as polished as it could be.

FreeDink, on the other hand, FreeDink... *AAH* Sugarsmooth, featurerich, ample and loving, it will fulfil all your dmod playing wishes... AND MORE! Many bugs and problems regarding both playing Dink and developing dmods for it have been addressed, and as FreeDink is still in active development, continue to be addressed. If you ever run into problems, be sure to send vitriolic complaints to the author, Beuc. Don't forget to insult the size of his FreeDink. Err, alternatively, being polite might work, too.

Personally, I'm a Windows user, and I've switched from mostly using v1.08 Aural+ to play and create dmods, to solely using FreeDink. It's a clean improvement all around. Additionally, FreeDink is available for Linux and OS X (among others), potentially reaching a wider audience than the old Windows-only versions. Don't let the fact FreeDink is still being developed scare you, either. FreeDink isn't incomplete compared to other versions of Dink, it's just still being made even better, whereas the other versions were released and forgotten about a long time ago.

Something to note about this file is that it only includes the game engine. The FreeDink data (the sounds and music for FreeDink, and the original Dink adventure) and DFArc 3 (the frontend, for playing dmods) are separate files. The FreeDink data includes totally new sounds and music to replace the ones from the original game, because those could not be distributed under the license that FreeDink uses. Sounds like fun, 'cept that as of this writing, the FreeDink data is still LACKING a lot of both, caressing you with an uncomfortable silence as you play the game. (Go to http://www.gnu.org/software/freedink/contribute to help)

Therefore, you might want to download and install the original game instead, and copy the sounds and music from there to FreeDink. Or install FreeDink directly on top of the original game, which works fine.
March 15th, 2014
1.08.20090918
Score : 9.7 exceptional
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Cocomonkey
Bard He/Him United States
Please Cindy, say the whole name each time. 
It seems like a lot of people regard GNU FreeDink as just a way to play Dink on non-Windows operating systems, but in my opinion, it's the best version of Dink for Windows as well.

Everything works so smoothly, and a number of bugs from the original are fixed. Long "say_stop" lines crash version 1.08, but FreeDink has no problem with them. FreeDink can use .wav files without the ridiculous problems that 1.08 (and former versions) can have. If everyone used FreeDink, DMODs would be better for it. I developed "Malachi the Jerk" while using FreeDink to play test it, and I had to go back and fix a lot of extra bugs in order to make it compatible with 1.08. The bugs weren't really anything I had done wrong, they were just frustrating quirks that this version is thankfully missing.

I've heard complaints about the replaced sounds in the "free-as-in-freedom" version of Dink Smallwood (the game) that comes in the FreeDink data pack. This is an unnecessary complaint, because you can still use the /dink directory from a regular Dink installation with FreeDink (I do).

I couldn't possibly go back. I recommend FreeDink to everybody.